CF partition resizing

Wookie7 · Jan 13, 2006, 3:50 PM

I am new pfSense. It is the most incredible router platform I have seen. I am anxious to put it to work.

I have a WRAP board with a 256MB CF. I used dd if=pfsense_image.img of=/dev/rdisk3 to put the image file on the CF. I use Mac OS X.

It installs correctly, but when I log into the web interface the System Status page reports 97% disk usage and if I actually plug it in and use it that shoots up to 101% (with several NAT users behind it).

Should the disk usage be a much lower percent? I am guessing that the partition on the CF is no bigger than the image file I used and this is the reason for my problems.

If the Wiki "Resize Embedded Flash Image" is the way to correct it, are there other instructions somewhere else for resizing on other platforms or is a BSD platform the only choice? I do not readily have a FreeBSD machine nearby, though I could use Freesbie on my old junker PC. Would this be the easiest approach?

jeroen234 · Jan 13, 2006, 9:46 PM

enable ssh on the wrap
and use youre pc to log in the wrap using ssh
nou you have a freebsd platform to work off

Wookie7 · Jan 14, 2006, 5:49 AM

@jeroen234:

enable ssh on the wrap
and use youre pc to log in the wrap using ssh
nou you have a freebsd platform to work off

Why wouldn't I just login via ssh with my Mac? What advantage would there be using the PC?

I appreciate the assistance.I don't understand why logging into a live filesystem would help. I wouldn't want to resize a live file system, would I? The instructions on the wiki are for using a separate FreeBSD system, I thought. If there is a specific command I can use on the live system I would appreciate an example syntax.

hoba · Jan 14, 2006, 11:26 AM

If you have 101% you are probably running an old version. We once had this issue but it is fixed for the latest versions. I would suggest using the files from http://pfsense.com/~sullrich/BETA2-BUGVALIDATION3/ .

Don't panic if you see 97% on embedded platforms. The partition of these images will always be just the size pfsense needs, no matter how big the cf-card really is. That way it even can run on a 64 MB CF. The filesystem is read only, nothing is written to it (besides the config.xml on changes) and there is no packagesupport to write additional data to it for embeddeds.

Wookie7 · Jan 15, 2006, 6:02 AM

Thanks very much for the info Hoba. I really appreciate your help. All references on the main site point to and speak only of v1 Beta 1. I am glad to know there is something newer.

Can you give me a recommendation of which version would be best for stability? How does the version numbering handled for pfSense? Was everything before v1 pre-beta/alpha?

My primary need is for load balancing, but pfSense goes so far beyond that basic need!

hoba · Jan 15, 2006, 6:12 AM

Alpha builds were labeled 0.xx
Beta builds are 1.0betaX (for example for beta versions of 1.0)
The files from the link I posted are more or less preview snapshots of the upcoming 1.0beta2.
I can recommend using these as they solve some ftp issues and have several other bugfixes.
Stability in my experience is no issue since around the 0.8x alphas and these were mostly freebsd related.